This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, college readiness, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues with additional focus at the national level.

Bill Gates is famous for many things, including spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop,
promote and defend the Common Core State Standards. In 2014, the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation awarded millions more for the Core, plus
other issues in the education world.
Along with the Common Core,
the big winners in terms of issue were charter schools — especially in
Washington state (where Gates helps finance a campaign to win voter
approval of charters) — and online and technology-based learning
initiatives.
In terms of dollars spent, Gates is the leading
billionaire/millionaire who has poured money into school “reform” in
recent years. Such philanthropy has raised questions about whether
American democracy is well-served by wealthy people who pour so much
money into their pet projects — regardless of whether they are known to
be useful in education — that public policy and public funding follow in
their wake.

Here are 15 of the biggest education-related grants listed on the Gates Foundation’s Web site for 2014:

New Venture Fund Date: May 2014
Purpose: to support the successful implementation of the Common Core
State Standards and related assessments through comprehensive and
targeted communications and advocacy in key states and the District of
Columbia Amount: $10,300,300 Term: 13 Topic: Global Policy & Advocacy, College-Ready Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA Program: United States Grantee Location: Washington, District of Columbia Grantee Website: http://www.newventurefund.org
[The New Venture Fund received another grant in January worth
$2,266,215, plus at least two more during the year worth $601,637]